The General-Purpose Irradiated Fiber and Foil Experiment for material characterization under fusion-relevant loads

On the path towards nuclear fusion as a future energy source, the development and subsequent qualification of suitable materials play a crucial role. Especially the scarcity of a 14 MeV fusion neutron source represents a major challenge, which can only be partially mitigated by existing alternatives. Furthermore, it is not sufficient to investigate the individual fusion-relevant loads such as irradiation damage, thermomechanical loads and the implantation of hydrogen isotopes in isolation from each other. For this purpose, the G eneral-Purpose Ir radi a ted F iber and F oil E xperiment (GIRAFFE) was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching, a high-precision tensile testing machine installed in a particle accelerator beamline. The simultaneous application of irradiation damage from high-energy ions, implantation of hydrogen and helium ions as well as thermomechanical loads, enable a previously unachievable simulation of the synergistic effects of a fusion environment. This article describes the technical design of the machine, as well as the possible applications.